Finding Your Subscription Box Niche

Discover why choosing a niche for your subscription box is important and how to go about finding your niche.

My team created some Launch Your Box gifs and memes to use in social media posts, emails, and all things marketing. They asked members for their favorite “Sarah sayings” - things I tell them often or expressions I use. “All the things,” was a big one as was, “Hold, please!” But the most popular response was, “The riches are in the niches.” 

That made me smile because it means they’re listening! 

via GIPHY

When we’re talking subscription boxes - and on this blog, that’s what we do - the riches truly are in the niches. 

In our industry, a niche is defined as a small part of the market with well-defined wants, interests, or needs.

Some subscription box owners worry that “a small part of the market” means a small opportunity for success. 

The opposite is actually true.

In fact, choosing a niche for your subscription box business is so important that I dedicated an entire chapter in my book, One Box at a Time to it. Chapter Two is called “Determine Your Ideal Customer.” And when you do that - and do it well - a niche will usually become clear.

Why should you choose a niche? 

When you niche down and get really specific with who your ideal customer is, you’re able to serve them better. Getting specific allows you to make deeper connections with your audience - and it allows you to find and build the right audience! 

When you understand your audience’s wants, needs, problems, and desires you’re able to speak directly to them with your messaging. 

When you try to speak to everyone, you end up truly speaking to no one. 

Think about trying to speak to all women. What would your messaging be? How could you appeal to the feelings, wants, needs, and problems of all women? Then consider if you tried to speak to mothers of preschoolers with special needs or women who were sending a child away to college for the first time. How much easier would it be to speak to their feelings, wants, needs, and problems?

You could say that Launch Your Box and Scale Your Box member Nicole’s niche found her. When she adopted two guinea pigs, she went looking for a subscription box for them. What she found instead was an unmet need. 

Nicole connected with her audience, curated a subscription box for guinea pigs and their owners, and continues to serve hundreds and hundreds of subscribers every month. Learn more about Nicole’s journey in Chapter 2 of One Box at a Time and in episode 13 of the Launch Your Box podcast.

When you get really specific with your audience and your messaging, you allow for magic to happen. The kind of magic that has your followers feeling like you’re speaking directly to them.

How can you find your niche?

Now that I’ve convinced you it’s important to niche down in order to build an audience for your subscription box, it’s time to find your niche. 

Some members come to Launch Your Box already knowing exactly who they want to create subscription boxes for. Others have a general idea but need help narrowing their focus. 

A great way to get clear on who your ideal customer is and identify your niche is by taking my FREE 6 in 60 Workshop. I walk you through my planning process which starts with really getting to know the person you’re building that subscription box for.

Start by coming up with three to five words that describe your ideal customer. Answer these questions to help guide your thinking: 

• Is your ideal customer a man or a woman? 
• Is your ideal customer an adult or a child? 
• Does your ideal customer have children? If so, what age(s) are they? 
• What are your ideal customer’s hobbies?
• What is your ideal customer a fan of? 
• What is your ideal customer’s profession? 
• How old is your ideal customer? 

Thinking through and answering these questions helps you start to develop a clear picture of the ideal customer for your subscription box. Take your time and put effort into getting really specific. 

Once you’ve identified who you’re creating a subscription box for, it’s time to clearly define your niche. Let’s talk about a few common ways of choosing a niche.

Choose a subscription box niche filled with people just like you.    

Several members of Launch Your Box have started subscription boxes to serve people just like them. 

Anne has been a practicing dentist for the last 20 years. Inside her community of women dentists, Anne noticed that after a certain point, they’d start to feel burned out from putting others before themselves. They struggled to enjoy practicing dentistry like they once did.

When Anne started a subscription box, she decided to serve this audience. Not ALL dentists, just female dentists. Anne knows and understands the specific challenges and problems faced by female dentists because they are the challenges and problems she faces every day. By niching down, Anne found a great deal of success with her subscription box. Hear more about her story on episode 3 of the Launch Your Box podcast.

Another member of Launch Your Box is a CRNA or Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist. When Jamie was looking to start a subscription box, she decided to serve women just like her. Not all health care workers. Not even all nurses. Her box is specifically for other CRNAs. She is able to speak directly to them through her messaging. The result? A subscription box business that just keeps growing. Learn more about Jamie in this blog post.

Choose a subscription box niche that reflects your passion.

Other successful subscription box owners inside Launch Your Box started boxes because they had a specific passion.

Katie is a self-proclaimed book nerd. She loves to read. And she LOVES beautiful books. Katie could have started a book box like so many others out there. But, Katie has a particular love for a certain type of book. The classics. So she started a subscription box for readers who want to discover or revisit the classics, digging into these much-loved books. 

Katie creates an entire experience around the reading of these keepsake-quality books. She is sharing her passion with her audience, and they love it! She shared it with me on episode 64 of the podcast.  

Amanda is a planner. She is devoted to staying organized and using tools to help her achieve order. But not just any tools. There is a particular planner Amanda uses, the Hobonichi planner. Amanda is not alone in her love for this planner. She found other people who shared her passion, built a community by serving them, and launched her subscription box to astounding success! Amanda shares her story in this blog post where she proves you don’t need a big audience to succeed, just the right audience. Or the right niche!

What will your niche be?            

When deciding what your niche will be, spend some time truly getting to know your ideal customer. If you need help, check out this blog post. 

I encourage you to really narrow down your focus. A member of Launch Your Box started a subscription box for craft beer lovers who collect embossed aluminum brewery signs. Now that’s specific. She is able to speak directly to her audience because she knows exactly who they are and what they want. 

If your idea is broad, challenge yourself to narrow it down. Do the research to find out who your ideal customer is and what their needs and wants are. What problems can you solve for that person? 

You’ll attract that one person more quickly and easily than if you try to go too broad. Remember, when you try to speak to everyone, you end up speaking to no one. 

If you haven’t grabbed a copy of my book, One Box at a Time, you can get one- and a FREE Beginner Bundle Bonus - here!